Pairings Process Overview

Contents - Index

Pairings Process Overview

The following is a "how to" overview of the process used by GTM to perform pairings of player groups for a tournament. There are two basic ways to pair your players:

     1. For situations where your player groups are pre-assigned (i.e. who is playing with whom is pre-established)
         the simplest and recommended way to form a final Player List is to use the Player List Create/Update
         choice from the Preparation Menu.   With this method you simply fill in a series of display screens, group
         by group, with the information for each player in the player group, including pre-determined Flight
         assignments if applicable. A "final" Player List is created and is the one used with other program features
         such as Start Time/Tee Assignments, Scorecard and Cart Sign printing, Tournament Scoring, etc.

     2. For situations where you wish to automatic pairings and/or flight assignments based on handicaps,
         GTM provides several features on the Pairings Menu to accomplish the task. The remainder of this Help
         Topic provides an overview of these features and includes links to individual topics on each feature.

How to Do Automatic Pairings

-- The base point for most automatic pairings tasks is the Master Player List. This is a list of all your players
   who can potentially participate in a given tournament. It can be created manually or imported from
   Sportsware's GHM Handicap System or a GHIN-Windows Handicap System, and can be updated at any time.

-- Once you have a Master Player List you can do Player Selection from it, i.e. select the participants for a
   given tournament. Selection is an easy task via check boxes on a series of windows that display your Master
   Player List.

-- When you exit Player Selection the program creates a Tournament Players List, which is simply an unpaired
   list of your selected tournament participants. If the tournament field consists of only the selected players, you
   can proceed to Player Group Pairings. If you wish to add "outside" players (i.e. players not in your Master
   Player List), select "Tournament Players List" from the Program Menu and add the desired outside players at
   the end of the presented list.

-- You can also create a Tournament Players List independently of selection from a Master Player List. To do
   so, select "Tournament Players List" from the Program Menu and fill in your player information.

-- Once your Tournament Players List is finalized you can proceed to Player Group Pairings. Here you have a
   choice of several automatic pairings methods, including Low-to-High Handicap Indexes and the commonly
   used AB - ABCDE groupings. You can also choose to do User-Selected Player Groups, in which case you
   are presented with your Tournament Players List and you fill in a Group Number for each player. When you
   exit one of the automatic pairings methods you are presented with Player Group Confirmation/Change screens
   from which you can simply accept the pairings or change them by overwriting presented information or
   performing Swaps.

-- You can also do automatic Flights Formation on an Individual Players or Team basis. Flights can be formed
   by Straight Handicaps or by Handicap Ranges that you specify. For Individual Flights, if you have previously
   done player group formation, Flight Numbers are assigned to players in the established player groups; or, you
   can form player groups during the flighting process. For Team Flights you must have first formed player
   groups; the program assigns Team Flight Numbers on the basis of a Team Handicap that is determined when
   the player groups are formed.

-- Once you complete Player Group Pairings (with or without Flights Formation) you have a "final" Player List.
   This final Player List is the one used with other program features such as Start Time/Tee Assignments,
   Scorecard and Cart Sign printing, Tournament Scoring, etc.

-- You can also create Match Play Brackets from your final Player List via a choice from the Pairings Menu. In
   this case the brackets are formed based on handicaps. (Match Play Brackets can also be formed based on
   scores via a choice from the Results Menu. This feature is most often used to form Match Play Brackets
   based on scores from a qualifying round.)

Important Notes:
     -- Whenever you update your Master Player List, any Player Selections made previously from the list are
        cleared. The program assumes you will do new selections from the updated Master Player List.

     -- Whenever you enter Player Selection, any Player Group Pairings done previously are removed. The
        program assumes that you will do new groupings based on modified player selections.